# Performance-related feedback as a strategy to overcome spontaneous occupational stereotypes

## TL;DR

This study shows that giving feedback on performance can help reduce occupational stereotypes when people process role-related terms.

## Contribution

The study introduces performance-related feedback as an effective method to reduce spontaneous occupational stereotyping effects.

## Key findings

- Feedback training improved performance on stereotype-incongruent pairings.
- Improved performance effects were observed on new stimuli and lasted a week later.
- Feedback reduced the spontaneous activation of occupational stereotypes.

## Abstract

This article investigates the use of performance-related feedback as a strategy for overcoming spontaneous occupational stereotyping when certain social role nouns and professional terms are read. Across two studies participants were presented with two terms: a role noun (e.g., surgeon) and a kinship term (e.g., mother) and asked to quickly decide whether both terms could refer to the same person. The feedback training involved telling participants whether their responses were correct or incorrect and providing them with their cumulative percentage correct score. In the absence of feedback, responding to stereotype-incongruent pairings was typically slower and less accurate than in stereotype-congruent and neutral conditions. However, the results demonstrated that performance significantly improved to stimuli on which participants received the feedback training (Experiment 1), and to a novel set of stimuli (Experiment 2). In addition, the effects were still evident 1 week later (Experiment 2). It is concluded that performance-related feedback is a valuable strategy for overcoming spontaneous activation of occupational stereotypes and can result in lower levels of stereotype use.